Package for compressed materials



July 28,1970 R. A. FERRELL 3,521,742

PACKAGE FOR COMPRESSED MATERIALS Filed July 26, '1968 i 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR ROBERT A. FERRELL MM MM, M i fiqdlb m ATTORNEYS July 28, 1970 R. FERRELL 3,521,742

PACKAGE FOR COMPRESSED MATERIALS Filed July 26. 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR ROBERT A. FERRELL ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,521,742 PACKAGE FOR COMPRESSED MATERIALS Robert A. Ferrell, Shelbyville, Ind., assignor to KCI Corporation, Shelbyville, Ind., a corporation of Indiana Filed July 26, 1968, Ser. No. 748,026 Int. Cl. B6511 3/04, 85/16 U.S. Cl. 206-46 11 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Flexible paper tubing for packaging compressed material such as insulation and the like. The tubing is made up of one or more layers of paper each of which is wound into a helical configuration with overlapping edge portions adhered to one another. When multiple layers are used, the layers may be wound in the same or opposite directions.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the invention This invention relates to a package construction.

Description of the prior art In the packaging of insulation it is the present practice to compress the insulation to a size which might be, for example, one-twentieth the initial size of the insulation. Such compression packed insulation makes possible substantial savings in expense of transporting of the insulation to the customer. After compression of the insulation,

the insulation is retained in its compressed condition by flexible paper tubing (single or multi-walled) into which the insulation may be inserted by means of a conventional duck bill guide.

The presently available flexible paper tubing used for packaging such insulation is formed by the overlapping and adhering together of the lateral edges of a sheet of paper to form a seam. It has been found that a tube so constructed tends to burst or fail particularly in a line parallel to the seam. One reason for such failure is the fact that the paper always tends to be weaker in tension across the width direction or cross direction of the paper than in the length direction or machine direction of the paper.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION One embodiment of the present invention might include a tubular package construction comprising a first elongated sheet of flexible fibrous material wound into a helical configuration with the longitudinal edge portions thereof overlapping and adhered to one another to better contain matter under compression within said package construction.

One object of this invention is to provide an improved package.

Another object of this invention is to provide a tubular package which is stronger in compression retention than presently existing package constructions.

Related objects and advantages will appear as the description proceeds.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The full nature of the invention will be understood from the accompanying drawings and the following description and claims:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a tubular package having compressed insulation or the like packed therein as an example of the prior art;

FIG. 2 is a plan view with portions broken away to show internal construction of a flattened tubular package embodying the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a side elevation of the package of FIG. 2 showing it in a rolled condition;

3,521,742 Patented July 28, 1970 "ice DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now more particularly to FIG. 1, there is illustrated an example of the prior art which includes a plurality of elongated sheets 10 of paper which have their respective lateral edges 11 and 11' overlapped and adhered together by wet adhesive or secured by any appropriate means such as staples, stitching or the like. Contained within the package 13 is compressed insulation 12 which by reason of the substantial compression therein exerts a tensile force acting in the direction of the arrow 15 or in other words in the cross direction of the paper. As mentioned, the paper is weaker in the direction of the arrow 15 than it is in the direction in the length of the paper or in the machine direction or in the direction of the arrow 16. Consequently, a packaging arrangement as illustrated in FIG. 1 tends to fail or burst in a line parallel to the seams formed by the overlapping lateral edges 11 and 11'.

Referring now to FIG. 4, my invention involves the wrapping or winding of at least one elongated sheet of paper or other flexible fibrous material into a helical configuration with the lateral edge portions 21 and 21 thereof overlapping and attached to one another to form package 20. This attachement can be, for example, by wet adhesive such as #178 adhesive manufactured by the H. B. Fuller C0. of St. Paul, Minn. As illustrated, compressed insulation 22 or the like is contained within the package 20, and exerts a force on the paper in the direction indicated by the arrow 25. It can be seen that a component of the force acting in the direction 25 is acting in the same direction as the machine direction or the longitudinal direction of the paper 26 making up the packaging arrangement 20. Also the force of the insulation acting in the direction 25 is not acting directly across the seam made up by the overlapping edges 21 and 21'. Consequently, with a single layer of paper wound and adhered as described in connection with FIG. 4, substantially greater strength of the package is provided as compared to the package of FIG. 1 (assuming a single layer of paper for the embodiment of FIG. 1).

Even greater strength can be achieved by winding an additional layer (or layers) onto the package of FIG. 4. Such an additional layer or layers can be either in the same direction as the initial layer or in the opposite direction as compared to the initial layer. Referring to FIG. 2, an oppositely wound construction is illustrated as including a sheet of paper 30 having lateral edges 31 and 31' which are overlapped and adhered together by wet adhesive. Beneath the layer defined by the sheet 30 of paper is a further layer defined by a sheet 35 of paper which is adhered to the paper 30 by suitable adhesive and has its lateral edge portions 36 and 36' adhered together by adhesive. It can be seen that the spiral or helical winding of the paper 30 is in the opposite direction to the spiral or helical winding of the paper 35. Such an arrangement provides an even greater strength than the strength provided by a single layer of helically wound paper. This is true because of the fact that the crossed seams tend to reinforce one another. Of course, the two layer embodiment also has a greater strength than the prior art of FIG. 1 because the force on the paper is exerted at least 3 partially in the machine direction as opposed to the cross direction of the paper. At the rightward end of FIG. 2 the inside portion of the opposite side of the tubing is illustrated with both layers illustrated in the leftward side of FIG. 2 being broken away. The thickness of the paper is exaggerated for clarity.

FIG. 3, like FIG. 2, shows the tubing of FIG. 2 in a flattened condition but also in a rolled conditions which is the normal condition in which the tubing is stored. Thus it should be emphasized that one important feature of the invention is the fact that the tubing is formed of flexible paper so that the tubing can be flattened as illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3 or can assume any configuration appropriate and caused by the compressed insulation or other material contained within the flexible tubing.

Referring now to FIGS. 5 and 6, there is illustrated an alternative embodiment of the invention which includes the Wrapping or winding of a plurality of sheets 40, 41 and 42 of paper (three in this example) or other flexible fibrous material into a helical configuration with the sheets all being wound in the same direction so that the seams formed by the respective overlapping lateral edge portions 45 and 45; 46 and 46'; and 47 and 47' are parallel to one another rather than crossed as in the embodiment of FIG. 2. As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the seams formed by the overlapping edges are spaced apart by a distance which equals the width of the material used divided by the number of layers (adjusted for the width of the seam). It can be appreciated therefore that the seams are equally spaced apart as perhaps best shown in FIG. 6.

In the case of the oppositely wound embodiment of FIG. 2 or the same direction wound embodiment of FIG. 6, it may be desirable to secure the multiple layers of the package together by spots, lines or areas of adhesive or the like to better hold the package together. In other embodiments of the invention, however, such spotting or the like willrnot be necessary. The amount or extent of such adhesive spots or the like should be limited in order to keep the package as flexible as possible.

It can be appreciated that there are a number of variables involved in the manufacture of a package according to the present invention. For example, there are the variables of the angle of the winding, the width of the paper, the circumference of the package, speed of producing a given length of package as well as the speed of payout of the material for winding. These variables must be chosen to best meet the requirements of the package product as well as the requirements of production. Thus the speed of winding a given length of package can be increased if the angle of winding is reduced. Alternatively, the strength of the package in tension across the package or in compression retention can be increased by increasing the angle of winding.

The present invention can be practiced with various types of paper or other types of flexible fibrous material for winding the one or more layers of the package. For example, the material used in winding may be laminated paper with reinforcing glass fibers located between the laminations or the material may be nonlaminated with a woven scrim reinforcement. Also various types of adhesive can be used in the invention for example, hot melt adhesive, or the material may be heat sealing in nature and secured together without separate adhesive.

It will be evident from the above description that the present invention provides an improved package. It will also be evident that the present invention provides a package which is much stronger in resisting tension produced by compressed contents thereof than in presently existing packages. For example, it has been found that instead of using four layers of paper in the manner illustrated in FIG. 1, three layers of paper can be used to provide the same strength of package as long as the layers are arranged as described above in connection with this invention. The saving in paper can easily be appreciated from this example.

While the invention has been illustrated and described in detail in the drawings and foregoing description, the same is to be considered as illustrative and not restrictive in character, it being understood that only the preferred embodiment has been shown and described.

The invention claimed is:

1. A tubular packaging arrangement comprising a first elongated sheet of flexible fibrous material wound into a helical configuration with the lateral edge portions thereof overlapping and attached to one another, and matter under compression contained within said packaging arrangement and retaining it in tension.

2. A tubular packaging arrangement comprising a first elongated sheet of flexible fibrous material wound into a helical configuration with the lateral edge portions thereof overlapping and attached to one another, said sheet being wound in a first direction, a second elongated sheet of flexible fibrous material wound into a helical configuration with the longitudinal edge portions thereof overlapping and adhered to one another, said second sheet surrounding said first sheet and in contact therewith, said second sheet being wound in a direction opposite to said first sheet, and matter under compression contained within said packaging arrangement and retaining it in tension.

3. A tubular packaging arrangement comprising a first elongated sheet of flexible fibrous material wound into a helical configuration with the lateral edge portions thereof overlapping and attached to one another, said sheet being wound in a first direction, a second elongated sheet of flexible fibrous material wound into a helical configuration With the longitudinal edge portions thereof overlapping and adhered to one another, said second sheet surrounding said first sheet and in contact therewith, said second sheet being wound in the same direction as said first sheet, and matter under compression contained within said packaging arrangement and retaining it in tension.

4. The packaging arrangement of claim 1 wherein the sheet has a greater strength in the longitudinal direction than in the transverse direction.

5. The packaging arrangement of claim 2 wherein the sheet has a greater strength in the longitudinal direction than in the transverse direction.

6. The packaging arrangement of claim 3 wherein the sheet has a greater strength in the longitudinal direction than in the transverse direction.

7. The packaging arrangement of claim 2 wherein a portion of said second sheet is adhered to said first sheet.

8. The packaging arrangement of claim 3 wherein a portion of said second sheet is adhered to said first sheet.

9. The packaging arrangement of claim 1 wherein the matter under compression exerts a force on said sheet which is of a magnitude tending to burst open said packaging arrangement.

10. The packaging arrangement of claim 2. wherein the matter under compression exerts a force on said sheet which is of a magnitude tending to burst open said packaging arrangement.

11. The packaging arrangement of claim 3 wherein the matter under compression exerts a force on said sheet which is of a magnitude tending to burst open said packaging arrangement.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,319,455 10/1919 Bartlett 229-93 1,432,010 10/1922 Angier 206-46 2,132,958 10/1938 Martin 206-46 WILLIAM T. DIXSON, JR., Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

